Tiger Woods’ major-to-major experiment appears to have only lasted one event.
After playing no competitive golf between his historic Masters victory in April and last week’s PGA Championship — which resulted in a missed cut — Woods announced on Thursday that he won’t be taking a similar plan of attack into the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.
“I wanted to play at Quail Hollow, but to be honest with you, I wasn’t ready yet to start the grind of practicing and preparing and logging all those hours again,” Woods said of his four-week break before the PGA. “I was lifting — my numbers were good. I was feeling good in the gym, but I wasn’t mentally prepared to log in the hours.”
Already sticking to his previously-discussed scaled-back schedule, Woods will tee it up next week at the Memorial Tournament and then take another week off prior to the U.S. Open.
Ohio next week for the @MemorialGolf, then Pebble for the @usopengolf. Looking forward to getting out there again.
— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) May 23, 2019
“There’s no reason why I can’t get up to speed again and crank it back up,” Woods said following a second-round 73 that left him on the wrong side of the cutline. “I’ve got to start feeling a little bit better first before that happens. We’ll do that first and then start cranking it back up again. I just wasn’t moving the way I needed to. That’s the way it goes. There’s going to be days and weeks where it’s just not going to work, and today was one of those days.”
Woods’ prep for Pebble Beach is already underway as the three-time U.S. Open champion was spotted at the site of his 2000 triumph where he beat the field by 15 shots.
Swear a Tiger just walked by, but there were no roars. #3 #PebbleBeach #USOpen #TigerWoods #StartingTheUSOpen @amazon @BarnesNoble_D88 pic.twitter.com/wyRKOxeP8x
— Ron Read (@golfdinosaurrr) May 23, 2019
Woods appears to be practicing alongside his girlfriend, Erica Herman, although his normal caddie, Joe LaCava looks to be absent for this scouting trip.
The U.S. Open will be contested June 13-16.
